Before the Beginning, there was a Blue Hum: infinite, omnipotent, and very, very bored.

So for its own amusement, it became the Universe, infiltrated it with living consciousness, and now enjoys the ongoing interaction from every possible perspective. We are eyes of God, together with every cat and rat, frog and fly, and through us God's omniscience is assured. But by participating in this consciousness, we share its energy, and thus its power. So magick is simply a question of learning how to exploit our access, and how best to regard the possibilities we thus discover.

Psychic energy is a separate stuff which, though it has its usual origin in living tissue, may act independently of it to spawn events consistent with its character. Magick is a psychic technology, a set of techniques and an attitude that enable the practitioner to manipulate psychic energy so it generates reality in accordance with his or her will.

Taking Power offers a dynamic understanding of this technique, and a vivid grasp of the attitude. From astral projection, the binding of spirits, power spots and the subtle body to the Holy Guardian Angel and magickal ethics, Stephen Mace presents it all in terms of the dynamics of psychic energy, without regard for any symbolic orientation. Thus the dynamics may be applied to any orientation, or to no orientation at all, so long as one's ideology admits to one's right to deal with reality in this wayŚwith the obligations and the privileges of the Creator.

"I like the way he blends aspects of the work of both Austin Osman Spare and Aleister Crowley and takes them further. Although Spare's work has received much attention of late, there seems to be relatively few works available which take Crowley's ideas one or two steps further rather than simply (as is so often the case) restating it." Ś Phil Hine, author of Condensed Chaos

Stephen Mace was introduced to the study of sorcery in 1970, when a Tarot reading predicted an imminent disaster in his life. Three days later the State Police raided his apartment, confiscated his stock and trade, bound him with handcuffs, and locked him in their tomb/womb for six weeks. In the years since, he has dedicated himself to the discovery of the fundamental dynamics of the art, the better to empower individuals to defy the oppression of the State Apparatus. To this end, he has written several books, including Shaping Formless Fire, and Seizing Power.